Episode 30: Holy Tome!: February 27, 2022

While Gotham City Burns
April 21, 1966
"To steal the Batmobile for a grand scheme, the Bookworm prepares a bizarre deathtrap for the Dynamic Duo."
84 minutes

"RD: Turning...My...Memory...Back" Vince is having an odd hair day after a long day yesterday. He wonders what to do with it. RD wonders if he can keep it uncut until they finish the entire series. Vince wonders how his wife would be able to handle it. Mrs. Deal is thankful his husband is bald rather than looking like Han Solo. 

Vince thought today's episode wasn't so good. RD wonders if he is still sleepy/asleep. Vince compares McDowall's large tongue to Dave Meltzer's. He shows him one of his paintings on this. RD considers putting a muzzle on Dave.  

While Robin remains tied the Narrator is worried about Batman driving "in the opposite direction on a trail that's fatally false!" (:16) He ends up at a bookstore where O'Hara is, who tells him that he messed up. Batman: "Don't tell me, GREAT HEAVENS! I'd better try to contact Robin instantly on the utility belt wavelink. Robin! ROBIN! Over." 

He then puts himself into a "trance" to turn...his...memory...back..."I'm trying to fathom the subconscious of a deadly criminal!" This leads him to "Big Benjamin" in the Clock Tower. Vince tries to point out that O'Hara also got to it and faster than Robin. He gives him applause. RD would give him a drink. 

So Batman speeds off at super-speed with a scared O'Hara. The show gives them one minute to rescue Robin. RD estimates it took them four. O'Hara wants to shoot the clock to stop it. Batman instead uses his Batzooka to connect electrical wires between the clock hands and the positive terminal of the Mobile's atomic power source, and asks O'Hara to clasp his hands and pray that their not an actual electrical circuit will work. Which it of course does.

In the lair Lydia can only hear a nightingale. Worm: "AHHHHH!" He throws random pages around. He then contemplates things while leaning on one of his goons: "I cannot conceive, but from "Gil Blas", translated by Tobias Smollett, Book 10, Chapter 3, quote: "Facts are stubborn things", unquote. Now the fact is that our bats have flown the belfry, unaccountably still squeaking. " Lydia: "Gee, and us with our super crime not pulled yet." All the goons then bow their heads in shame. Worm gives, and then takes his glasses back from Lydia, with a new plan in his mind.

Said plan is to just walk into Stately Wayne Manor right past Alfred and Aunt Harriet. (:33) He handles them by gassing them with another book, then smashes a case to steal another book. Gordon calls Batman in the Batcave to inform him of the theft. He first looks up as if to check for himself. "I'll be at Wayne Manor faster than anyone can imagine." Gordon also tells them there's a two story cookbook in the city. The Duo go to investigate, where Batman calls Worm a "foolish amateur" for his complicated plots. This is his despite having "no imagination".

Young RD was in a book club and once got the novelization of The Empire Strikes Back before the movie came out. Obviously learning beforehand that Obi-Wan was Luke's father ruined things. 

The Duo reach the book. Robin: "Holy Tome!" Batman has to tell the onlookers "the recipes in this book could be explosive!" As the cover is metallic they get out a yellow and pink Batmagnet to open it, as Worm and Lydia watch. Inside is a kitchen with "darn good soup"..."bat soup!" The door traps behind them. Worm gloats through a megaphone while Lydia fixes her makeup. He will steam them with "happy juices!" 

Batman: "Red alert, red alert! We are trapped inside a cookbook at 5th & Cedar!" 

Vince screen captured Dana Brooke's hair extensions for some reason. 

Gordon: "A fine pair of crime fighters, boiled in the entrails of a monster cookbook! Who could imagine a more tragic end?" 

Even worse is the Batmobile again being stolen. Batman then has to call the Batcave when Alfred is doing his daily routine of dusting the atomic pile. He literally jumps to the Batcomputer to assist. Gordon considers getting the Riddler from prison to safecrack the book before deciding to blow up the door conventionally. Finding nobody inside the police take off their hats to bow.

Worm and Lydia head with their goons to the Morganville library to steal some valuable books.
Lydia: ""The best laid plans of mice and men." I don't know where it's from, but I know it's true."
Worm: "Schemes. Schemes. Schemes. "The best laid schemes." Robert Burns, To A Mouse, Stanza 7. Schemes. You are graded C-minus."
They break through a wall with a Batbeam just as the Duo jump out of it, having heard everything beforehand. RD wonders why they didn't do anything earlier. They had also escaped through a steam shaft. RD wonders why they weren't cooked alive in there. Worm jumps into a trashcan. Lydia jumps into a box to watch with opera glasses. The goons are left to just run at the Duo with a wooden log as a battering ram. Batman steps out of the way throws a barrel at them, then watches Robin handle the rest. They then put a lid on the trashcan and beat on it like a drum so they can reveal a concussed Worm like in a (not The Animated Series) cartoon. 

In Gordon's office (:58) Bruce and Dick have heard about the "...bookworm? affair?" and give $5000 to the prison library. Bruce wonders what led Worm to villainy. Gordon offers to have him talk to Worm who is just waiting in the hallway. Lydia is also there reading a book about crime. Gordon: "You abandoned child! Is there no hope for you?" Bruce responds to Worm's book smarts with his own. Worm: "Bruce Wayne, you're almost as obnoxious as Batman!" 

Despite things, the two thought this day's episode wasn't so bad either. They wish there was more of him in the show. Or even in the world as all, for that matter.

RD is helping to prepare the 5th annual Rupert's Kids fundraiser on April 2nd at the Arcade. (:64)

Vince again asks RD his opinion on Cody Rhodes leaving AEW, which haven't really changed since the last time. 

RD still fondly remembers his personal interactions with Weird Al and how his welcoming nature still affects him and makes him want to do the same to others. 

Young Vince would often frequent the nearby New York Nets games and meet all the players. He could never forget getting starstruck into silence once by seeing late exiter Julius Erving and being asked to walk with him to his limo.

RD gives Vince a virtual hug.

 

  • Special Guest Villain: The Bookworm (Roddy McDowall)  


  • URLs not taken: 1. DaveMeltzersTongue.com
  • Entertain The People: 1
  • Screen Captures: 2. Vince, Vince
  • Vince Time Outs: 1

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